Improvement in barbed fence-wire



J. DOBBS.

BARB FENCE-WIRE. N0. 190,836. Patented May15,1877.

\f/VITNESSES 0,4,4 lwjigdl ATTOR N EY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN DOBBS, or VIGTOR, IOWA.

IMPROVEMENT IN BARBED FENCE-WIRE.

Specification forming part of'Letters Patent No. 190,886. dated May 15,1877; application filed July 29, 1876.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN DoEBs, of Victor, inthe county of Iowa and State of Iowa, have invented a new and valuableImprovement in Wire Fences; and I do hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and exact description of the construction andoperation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings,making a part of this specification, and to the letters and figures ofreference marked thereon.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a representation of a perspective view of asection of wire provided with the barb. Figs. 2 and 3 are detail views,showing the screw-threaded groove (1 and Fig. 4 is a top view of a wireto which a barb has been applied.

This invention has relation to improvements in barbed-wire fences; andit consists in the construction and novel arrangement of spiral-shapedgrooves, made at intervals in the fencewire to receive the coil or twistof the barbs, as hereinafter shown and described.

In the annexed drawings, the letter A designates a section of a wirefence made up of a suitable number of horizontally-arranged spacedwires, B. These wires are provided, at suitable distances apart, withscrew-shaped grooves a, into which the barbs are snugly seated by meansof a suitable clamping-instrument. These barbs will be U-shaped, andmade of a single piece of (preferably) round wire, and they will betwisted once around the wire, and deeply seated in the grooves a by theclamp, the pointed ends of the said barbs being extended beyond the wireon opposite sides of the fence. By this means the barbs, being seated inthe screwshaped grooves in the wire, will be rigidly held from rotatingon the same, and, also, from sliding along the wire toward each other.

I am aware that a fence-wire provided at intervals with spiral twists,into which the barbs are seated with their ends turned outward at rightangles to the fence, has heretofore been employed. I therefore lay noclaim to such device.

I am also aware that a U-shaped barbblank, adapted to be forciblyclamped on a wire in such a manner as to indent its sides, is old, and Ido not, therefore, claim such invention.

Instead of the U-shaped blank I may use a straight piece of wire, whichwill be bent around the fence-wires, and seated in the screw-threadedgrooves a.

I am aware that it is not new to twist the wire of a fence into helicalform, and to intertwist therewith the helical central portion of a barb;also that it is not new to secure a barb which has been twined around awire by compression; hence I do not claim such inventions.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The fence-wire herein described, having the interspaced surface-groovesa running spirally around the wire, into which grooves the barb-wiresare coiled or twined, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the above I have hereunto subscribed my namein the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN DOBBS.

Witnesses:

J. G. GRIDLEY, WM. ELLIOTT.

